Disney has officially uploaded the animated short-film, Paperman. Paperman introduced the feature film Wreck It Ralph in theaters, and has also been nominated for Best Animated Short Film for the 2013 Academy Awards.

I absolutely love animation, and I grew up with Disney.With everyone using CGI (computer-generated imagery) now-a-days, animation has gone from simple drawings in motion to 3D real-life imagery, as if we were actually watching real actors on the screen. However, with Paperman, first-time director John Kahrs wanted to recapture the roots of Disney and animation, and bring back the “expressiveness of 2D”, adding in CGI, to create a unique and touching short.

Watch the Oscar nominated short above, and also check out the link to see director, John Kahrs, discuss the drawings of Paperman.

I am in an activist mood today, and have been looking at ways that I can help those in need – whether it be people, animals, or the environment. I came across a really good site – Take Part – that highlights different issues a day which need to be addressed. So far, I’ve signed a few petitions, donated a few bucks, and have bookmarked the site so I can keep up-to-date with ways to take action.

However, one issue both really grabbed my attention and disgusted the hell out of me. It’s an issue regarding Tyson Foods. Apparently, Tyson, a U.S. pig supplier, has admitted to buying pigs from suppliers who use gestation crates, which are tiny cage like “pens” where the pigs are unable to even turn around, and barely sit down. However, while this was troubling, the thing that disgusted me the most was watching undercover investigation footage taken by the Michigan Humane Society of one of Tyson’s supplier’s pig breeding facilities in Wyoming.

I am providing you all with the video, however I will admit that I couldn’t even watch it more than a minute in. I will warn you, like the video states at the beginning, that it is GRAPHIC. For those of you who want to skip watching the video (which I don’t blame you for) it does show the facility’s employees mistreating the pigs in VERY inhumane ways. One man full out sucker punches a pig with his closed fist. An extremely overweight woman sits on a mother pig’s injured leg to get the sow to move. And as this is all going on, the pigs are all living in deplorable conditions. And this is just less than a minute into the video!

But here it is anyway, because I do believe we need to educate ourselves of what is going on under our noses.

The abuse shown in the video is highly disturbing. Did you know that pigs are smarter than dogs? They can feel every punch given to them, can understand that they do NOT deserve this abuse, but unfortunately are unable to do anything about it.

After seeing this, I signed the petition instantly. I was fuming inside as my heart raced frantically and my fingers typed the only 2 words I wanted to say to Tyson Foods (I’ll give you a hint: the first word started with F, the second ended in U). Of course I erased those hateful words because well, this is a petition, but you better believe it that I will be typing my own hate letter in my own time!

I did state in my petition message though that I would NOT be buying Tyson brands (I am a vegetarian, but shhh…they don’t need to know that!), and I made it clear that I would be urging my family, friends, and others I knew to boycott them as well. So here I am!

I ask you to please sign the petition to convince Tyson Foods to STOP using gestation crates and to STOP buying from suppliers who abuse the animals as if the animals were objects instead of beings.

Here’s the link to the petition, and after you sign it, please let us know in the comment section below. Let’s see how many people we can get to try to change Tyson Food’s mind about the way they treat their pigs!

I would like to share with you one of my own links. I have started a new blog (I will still be posting on this one) called The Reading Room. I decided I would like to focus more on book reviews, however since I write them here, I thought I would take a different approach and share my book reviews via video. I have seen a few product review vlogs (a video blog) and I liked the idea, so I decided to go for it and finally created one.

It will be strictly about book reviews, along with author and book news, and posts will be in the form of a video. So, the link above is to my new blog, and the video is a short introduction I made up just to say what The Reading Room will be all about. I hope everyone can check it out, and thank you in advance!